Vixen Vega
Vixen Vega - real name, Josefin Irene Gyllensvärd - is a North American citizen of Swedish extraction and one of the Western World's so-called "Superheroes". Her chosen alias is a feminization of the name "Vincent Vega", a character from the film "Pulp Fiction". A young woman of 21 years in age, Vixen has takren on her role quite reluctantly: she would prefer to be a simple university student, and to follow in her mother's footsteps in the field of Expirimental Biology. Background Josefin is not a naturally-born human at all (although she is not aware of the fact). Rather, she is a genetically-modified clone of her mother, Johanna Irene Gyllensvärd - created by her father and then artificially inseminated into her mother's womb. Though she bears a very striking resemblence to a younger version of her mother, as would be expected, there are a couple of major differences that come with her genetic modifcations. Mother & Daughter are not identical - Josefin's DNA has been slightly modified to give her some of her father's characteristics. She also has naturally snow-white hair, a rather stark genetic abnormality, and brilliant green eyes: her mother, Johanna, is blonde. Josefin / Vixen's white hair is perhaps due to the fact that her body is a naturally-occuring Cold Fusion reactor, although this cannot be said for certain without extensive genetic testing. This unique ability is the source of her powers, although she is essentially a normal person (albiet with an uncommon genius-level intellect and an abnormally high resting body temperature) unless she dones a special suit designed by her mother that allows her to make use of her power. Power Armor Josefin's alter ego, Vixen Vega, has perhaps one of the most diverse ability sets of any super-powered being. Apart from her incredible natural intellect, her gifts with computers and things of an electronic or mechanical nature, she is a living nuclear reactor. This is used to power a number of expirimental technologies built into the suit. Apart from being able to project blasts of directed raw plasma from the gauntlets - drawn directly from within her - the armor incorporates a number of powerful technological systems that rely on her own body for power. This gives Vixen the ability to create and project forcefields, manipulate objects telekinetically, fly, and other things besides. Her armor is one of the few pieces of technology created by modern humans that is capable of matching Marius Warren's own futuristic hardware - although, without Vixen's as a source of energy, it is essentially useless, while Warren's suit is powered by an advanced fuel cell of unknown construction. The suit provides Vixen with a constant flow of extremely complicated information which only someone with her prodigious intellect would be able to process. Much of it is pumped directly into her brain via the same nervous system uplink in the back of her neck which allows the suit to function in the first place, while the rest is fed to her through a special pare of green-lensed perscription glasses incorporating an LED Heads-Up-Display. Advanced electromagnetic and energy projectors secreted throughout the suit can be used for a variety of purposes, from creating forcefields to directing powerful blasts of plasma or wrapping her fists in fields of contained energy. Physically, however, Josefin is not at all imposing, and the armor - while incredibly advanced - does little to augment her natural strength. Ion thrusters built into the armor's boots and back, as well as a set of mechanical wings linked directly into her spine for control, allow her to fly or hover using a combination of thrust and gravimetric manipulation. She can teleport at will, although only over short distances and to places with which she has a direct line of sight. This power can also be used on others, and can be used to pull her comrades out of dangerous situations or disorient would-be attackers. Furthermore, she is equipped with an advanced automated medical system should she suffer injury and an A.I. - named Freyja - which was created from a clone of her own brain. Vixen is constantly manipulating, modifying and tweaking her suit as something of a personal hobby; she has so thoroughly redesigned it that she is now more familiar with it than her mother and the scientists who originally built it. The armor lacks many of the protective and strength-amplifying characteristics one would expect, which makes it more comfortable and easy to wear without restricting her moveements. Instead, it serves as a medium through which she can employ her unusual superhuman characteristics to their fullest effect. Unlike many other so-called "Superheroes", Josefin makes little attempt to hide her identity. The original version of her suit incorporated a hood for interfacing with her nervous system, but she has since modified it in such a way that this is no longer necessary, leaving her face exposed apart from the glasses. In terms of appearance, Vega's armor takes the form of a skin-tight silver-white bodyglove criss-crossed with geometric glowing green lines. Its most prominent features are the pronounced gauntlets, boots, backpack and of course, the wings. In combat, Vixen prefers to use her flight and teleportation to keep her enemies at a distance, maximizing her relative strengths and weaknesses. Although the energy-manipulation systems of her suit can be used for close-range combat, a simple blow over the head with a crowbar or baseball bat would be as crippling to her as it would be to anyone else, while her physical strength & stamina are sorely lacking in comparison to most of her opponents. When she can, she also employs her prodigious skills with electronics and computers, and when possible would prefer to simply not engage in combat at all. Other Abilities Josefin is extremely intelligent, even more so than series' principle protagonist, Anneliese. She is capable of speaking a huge variety of languages and learning new ones very quickly. She is an expert in all things relating to mechanics, electronics, computers, physics, biology and chemistry. An accomplished hacker, she once crashed the FBI's central mainframe for Elysium City just to prove she could do it. As a source of income, she often takes work doing electronic private investigations into businessmen or celebrities - a task at which she has no equal, not even Cassie della Rovere (who is also something of a computer wizard). Unlike Anneliese & Casandra, however, she is not at all a physical person: her knowledge of martial arts is limited to a bare minimum of necessary defensive techniques and she is quite clumsy, with little ability to play any sport. This is in contrast to her mother, Johanna, who is an accomplished tennis player. Personality Josefin is an extremely quiet and reserved person with a rather lacking set of social skills. She is also, however, quite frank, and is an atheist with a rather distasteful view of religion. She has never had any kind of romantic relationship and suffers from rather harsh self-esteem problems, feeling herself to be an outcast and something of a freak. She has never known her father, and has a somewhat unhealthy, submissive relationship to her overbearing and assertive mother, who is constantly pushing her to accel in everything she does. Josefin, for her part, would sincerely like to be a "normal girl", but has resigned herself to the fact that this is impossible and instead has taken up the monicker of Vixen Vega rather at her mother's behest. Over her short time acting as a vigilante, however, she has come to accept and even enjoy the role. However, she has an aversion to putting herself in harms way and is reluctant to face dangerous opponents in combat. Her condescending and sometimes abrasive attitude, coupled with her general lack of social skills or self-confidence, makes it difficult for her to work with other would-be heroes. The sole exception to this is a woman who operates under the alias of Luna Faye, a family friend of the Gyllensvärds, who is something of her mentor and probably her only real friend. Luna & Josefin often jokingly refer to one another as "Batman" and "Robin", respectively. Characteristics / Appearance Josefin is a tall, slender young woman - 170cm in height, or 5'7" - with a modest feminine figure, pale skin and angular features. Her most striking characteristics include her "intense", almond-shaped eyes, which are an almost-unnaturally bright shade of green, and her long snow white hair. The latter is not a condition of age or because of a disease: she was born with a complete lack of pigment production in her hair follicles, meaning her eyebrows and bodyhair (even her lashes) are of a matching color. She generally wears eye makeup to make the last feature less noticeable. She is of rather slight build, with thin bones, small hands and long, "piano player's" fingers with deep almond-shaped nails. She also has a small scar on her left cheek from a fall she suffered as a child. Overview Birth Name: Josefin Irene Gyllensvärd Legal Name: same as birth name Nicknames: *Vixen Vega Alias *Vix' (short form of alias used by Luna) Born: July 12th, 1998 Occupation(s): *Current: University Student, Vigilante Alma Mater: None Political Party: Socialist Unity Party of North America SUP Languages: *Native: English *Fluent: Swedish, Russian, Japanese, German Nationality: North American Race: Caucasian (Swedish ancestry) Eye Color: Bright Green Hair Color: White Height: 5'7" / 170 cm Weight: 52 kg / 115 pounds Bra size: 34B Author's Notes *Vixen Vega was the name of one of my characters on the MMORPG City of Heroes, and I created a rather extensive background for her. The story has been changed somewhat - such as a revision of her ancestry, from East German to Swedish, since East Germany never came about in the Vancil 1418 Universe - to adapt her to this setting, but the character herself is essentially unchanged. Her powers are, understandably, rather more extensive than they were originally, where I was constricted by game mechanics. *Luna Faye was my first high-level character in City of Heroes, and Vega was conceived as a partner / love interest character for her. The two have, however, been reduced to supporting characters for Anneliese in the Vancil 1418 literature, although I hope to eventually do them justice and explore their own stories in-depth at some point. *Vixen Vega's name was originally a tongue-in-cheek pun on the character of Vince Vega from Pulp Fiction. In re-adapting the character for the Vancil 1418 universe, I chose to make it a conscious joke on her part, since the movie still exists in the alternate history of the Vancil 1418 timeline. *Vixen / Josefin has, on one occasion, met Anneliese Vancil prior to the start of the series. Anneliese and Josefin's mother, Johanna, attended the same university and were Tennis partners. As such, Anneliese Vancil is a friend of the Gyllensvärd family, and the two met briefly at a Christmas party when Vixen was a small child. Josefin's family is the reason why Anneliese can speak Swedish. *Anneliese's client - who, at the beginning of the series, she knows as "Dylan" - is the CEO of the corporation that employs Josefin's mother, and a close friend of hers. The Gyllensvärd family is how Dylan found out about Anneliese and her unique talents in the first place. Anneliese, in turn, is (re-)introduced to Josefin through Dylan. *Josefin is one of only three primary characters who age normally, and the only principle character with special characteristics to do so (Michael Massie, a.k.a. Dylan, and Agent Conway also age naturally, but they are normal humans). Anneliese & Cassie are immortal, Luna Faye's aging is retarded by a special drug that she must take to compensate for the rapid aging effects of her powers, Marshal Freedom is *probably* also immortal, and Marius Warren has terminal cancer: his life is artificially perpetuated by his armor. *Josefin's favorite color is, rather obviously, green. *Although she is of Swedish ancestry, Josefin's first and primary language is English. However, in addition to Swedish, she can speak a wide plethora of languages with varying degrees of fluency. She is most adapt at Japanese & Russian (neither of which the author knows well, so you probably won't see much text in those languages appear in the series). *Josefin loves Anime and Japanese culture in general, much to the confusion of her mother. *A considerable bit of Josefin's character, especially as I reimagined her for the Vancil 1418 Universe, is based on Lisbeth from the "Millenium" series (a.k.a. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"), although Josefin is not nearly so "rough" and "dark", more just slim and "geeky". *Josefin's appearance is based on actress Rooney Mara, who played the character of Lisbeth Salander in the American adaptation of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". The author would like to point out, however, that he feels the American version of the film is inferior to the Swedish one (although I rather liked Mara's performance. In fact, I've never seen a performance of hers which I did not like). However, Josefin's appearance is NOT at all based on Mara's portrayal of Lisbeth, or on the character of Lisbeth at all - they simply share similar characteristics. Josefin does not have piercings or dress in a Gothic fashion (rather, she dresses like a rich young woman, which she is).